I watch my wife stand there, fingers twisting nervously in front of her, her face pale.
“Calina,” I say, my voice low and dangerous. “Start. Talking. Now.”
She swallows hard, eyes darting to the phone and flash drive in my hand before meeting my gaze again.
“I’m so sorry, Maxim,” she begins, voice trembling. “I know I promised I wouldn’t keep secrets from you anymore. I was planning to tell you… maybe this evening.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Really? So if I hadn’t found this, you would have just come to me and confessed everything on your own?”
She opens her mouth, but I cut her off, stepping closer.
“What the hell are you doing with this phone? And what’s on the flash drive? Are you spying on me? Are you leaking information to your brothers? Are you working against me with them? Have you been behind all of this?”
The moment the words leave my mouth, I see the hurt flash across her face. She looks like I just slapped her.
“No,” she whispers, shaking her head frantically. “No, Maxim. I would never do that to you. I would never work against you. How could you even think that?”
“Then what the fuck is this phone doing here?” I demand, holding it up.“What’s on the flash drive? Tell me!”
She takes a shaky breath, eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“The phone… it belongs to Dmitri.”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. I stare at her, momentarily speechless.
“What?”
“It’s Dmitri’s phone,” she repeats, voice barely above a whisper. “The one you’ve all been looking for.”
“You stole Dmitri’s phone? Why the hell would you do that? What kind of game are you playing?”
She steps closer, eyes pleading. “Dmitri is the mole.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Maxim
I stare at my wife like she has grown two heads. She might as well have. I can’t believe what I just heard.
“Say that again?” I growl, almost hoping my tone will make her backtrack. But no luck there.
“Dmitri is the mole you've been looking for.”
No. That can’t be right. There’s no fucking way. Dmitri, my best friend, the one I’ve trusted with my life for years, betraying me? It’s impossible.
I stare at Calina, my blood boiling. “What game are you playing at? Is this your way of covering your own tracks after I caught you sneaking around?”
She flinches but doesn’t back down. “We’ve had this conversation before. I knew you were not going to believe me right away. That’s why I hesitated to tell you. But Dmitri is the mole, Maxim.”
I laugh bitterly, running a hand through my hair. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She takes a shaky breath and starts explaining. “Yesterday, I couldn’t sleep. You were already asleep, so I went downstairs to the media room to watch something. As I was passing the lower floor, I heard someone on a hushed call. He was saying he would send a document, but he needed more time to get his hands on it. I didn’t know who it was at first, so I stayed to listen. Then Dmitri walked out of the room. The way he looked at me… like he’d been caught doing something wrong… it stuck with me. But I didn’t want to say anything because I wasn’t sure.”
I stare at her, jaw clenched so tight it hurts. “Go on.”
“So I… I had his phone stolen,” she admits, voice now a little shaky. “Milana helped me get it while you were all working out by the pool. I asked to give it to one of my brothers’ hackers. They went through...”
Rage explodes through me. “You did what? You took Dmitri’s phone and gave it to your brothers? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The danger you’ve put my entire business in? If your brothers get their hands on the information in that phone?—”
